KEY FEATURES OF THE QUARTER
· Turnover ahead by 8.6%, benefiting from 6.3% favourable currency movement.
· Underlying sales up by 2.9%, mostly volume, with pricing contributing 0.5 percentage points.
· Strong savings offset cost increases.
· Operating margin at 14.8%, 0.2 percentage points lower, with increased investment in advertising and promotions.
· Earnings per share from continuing operations up by 9%.

GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S COMMENT
Our priorities for 2006 are to sustain top line growth and improve margins. With the first quarter performance we are on track to achieve these objectives and our aggregate market share remains broadly stable since the start of last year.

The business environment has developed largely as expected. Overall world consumer demand is robust, although Western Europe remains sluggish and we have seen a recent renewed upsurge in some commodity prices.

We are investing behind our priorities and this is reflected in good progress in the first quarter in Developing and Emerging markets, in personal care and from Vitality innovations.

In Western Europe, we are maintaining market share and there are some encouraging signs of improvement as work continues to return the business to sustainable growth.

The move to One Unilever organisation around the world is progressing well and increasingly contributing to faster decision making, better execution and an impressive overall delivery of cost reductions.

As I look forward to the rest of the year, a strong innovation programme, the actions we have been taking on pricing and the level of cost savings, all give me confidence that we will meet our outlook.

Patrick Cescau, Group Chief Executive